It seems that I am unable to finish the assassin quest. Scanthril talks about how Grundel couldn't outrun the Dragon, and I have toasted Raskillion. No matter what I ask or what I do, I never get the dagger or become an assassin. What are the bonuses of becoming an assassin? If not, I will forget about it. If it does have a major plus, I might have to reset my quests.

I'm really surprised that none of the assassins out there have answered this for you, Sloth! And I, non assassin, really don't know. I would expect that you'd really be able to whack those baddies with even greater alacrity (sp?). Did you try killing the wossname Scanthril? Or do I recall someone saying that you have to locate Grundel's body (up north somewhere).

Hope someone with some real knowledge answers you soon. To have your question scroll to the second page with no reply makes me wonder if the sages aren't playing the game more than they are answering questions (and where's the fun in that?? )

From what I can tell of the game, the way it was supposed to work is this:

1) Talk to Scanthril (say 'Job') and get the job to kill Raskalion
2) Kill Raskalion
3) Talk to Scanthril (answer 'Yes'). Talk some more (say 'Pay' or 'Payment') and get told to find Grundel for reward
4) Find Grundel (dead body on island in lake I believe)
5) Talk to Scantril again (say 'Grundel'?) - get dagger
6) Enter Pawn Shoppe with dagger and be offered membership in Assassin's Guild (use trick to have more than one char become Assassin*)

I ended up exploring all around the open areas west of Ishad N'ha and found Grundel's body before I ever killed Raskalion, so I got the dagger on the first return trip. I guess his objective is to make you end up in the Boogre Caves and get killed yourself, thus sparing him the pain of paying you.

*Trick - Have char you want to become Assassin enter Pawn Shoppe with dagger in inventory (doesn't have to be equipped). When the guy starts offering you membership, go to the char's inventory and give the dagger to another char. This prevents it from being taken away from you. You can then finish talking and join the Assassin's Guild, then switch to the next char and repeat the process.**

**Glitch in Trick - Whoever has the Assassin's Dagger in their possession when entering the Pawn Shoppe will be offered membership regardless of whether they are already a member. This means two major things: 1) This is the only Guild you can go back to (but not really..read on) and 2) If you are/were an Assassin before, you will begin the Guild at level 1 (it even lists twice in your journal).

Well, I went against my better judgement and restarted my quests. I must say the cryhpt is much easier with 13th level guys who kill almost everything with one hit. After about 2 hours of playing I am in Shurgeon Castle. Will be sure to pay close attention to Scanthril this time. A little pointer for those unlucky souls who have done the same thing I did. If you are thinking about switching classes, be sure to do it BEFORE you reset. Once you reset the game treats you like a 1st level character. You can receive full hit points and bonus points when you advance.

Deathstrike comes in handy too, especially when combined with Lethal Fist. I'm dumping all of my points into that for my Assassin now. He's got about 170 more kills than my barb. He's becoming a nasty little Ratling, that's for sure.

I didn't get the dagger when I reported back to Scanthril after finding Grundel's body. Only after going back to the Stout Mines and doing in Raskalion (I let the poor bugger live first time around) did Scanthril cough up the Assassin's dagger.

Why go thru all that trouble when you can just get someone with a high enough enchant/bless skill and enhance the things you already have?
With my level 5 bless, I have +6 katanas (that's +6 to hit and +7 damage), +6 wakazashis, +5 witch's sticks, +5 AC bracelets, +5 to hit bracelets and many +5 rings... I have +6 weapons from original +1 weapons (+1 to hit, +2 to damage).

Unfortunately these things cost money. 5 blessings cost 1000+2000+4000+8000+16000 gold and repairing them runs into the thousands per item repair!

I don't have enchant but I suppose that's where the Artifact of X spells come in.

For the gold, I just use the arrow buy/sell bug in the Bushi Dojo. *shrug*

I personally don't want everyone in my party carrying around super weapons. Hell, this game's too easy as it is now. I can't imagine how boring it would be (for me at least) if my characters could smack down every monster they ran into with one or two shots. I found a +2 longsword tonight and was like "WOW!". I like it just fine that way . Maybe when I'm finished with the game I'll go back and try out some of the exploits but for now blessing/enchanting isn't really an option for me as my poor characters can barely scrounge up enough change to afford training at level-up. I'm still picking up round shields to repair and resell. Yeesh.

But hey, as long as we're all having fun.... That's the important thing.